In order to build an effective marketing strategy, you have to include article marketing within your toolkit. Without it, you will find it harder than you thought to start generating an online income. Article marketing is incredibly powerful when used correctly.

There are many free ways of advertising a product or service online. Be aware that just because these methods are free, they are any less effective than paid methods. Don’t disregard these effective marketing methods.

This is how you do it.

Well, you should be able to get your hands on the software that youll need: its called Microsoft Word

You want to be aiming for an article length of around 400 words. This is good for the directories to which you will submit your work. It’s surprisingly easy to come up with a 400 word article – don’t panic. Just write about what you know about, after doing a little research, and let your personality show.

Your article content will obviously relate to your website content in some way. So pick a specific aspect of your business, website or service and write your article. Remember it wants to be around 400 to 500 words, so make sure you stay on subject.

Your articles want to be unique and provide quality information on your chosen subject. The reader will want to know they have gained valuable information by the time they finish reading your article. Pique their curiousity with your title, then over-deliver within the article body.

Understand that to be successful, article marketing must contain quality content and not just be about publishing high quantity, instead of high quality.

The more articles you write and distribute, the higher your traffic will be. This is easy to do as there are many directories who will accept your articles and distribute them for free. I would recommend Ezinearticles.com as a start. Submit to as many directories as possible to increase your marketing results.

Ed Hodgson is a published authority within the internet marketing industry who effectivley uses article marketing to increase traffic to his own websites. As an online marketing mentor, he coaches newcomers to the industry his own system to increase a substantial income online.